Paul gives the game an 8/10, and he's felt the wrath of angry fans who've pointed to much higher scores elsewhere as The Truth.

But not everyone agrees.

Somebody has even concocted a fake PR letter to a fake video game journalist which attempts to paint the relationship between video game critics and PR in the worst possible light.

It's a hoax, and it's obviously a hoax, but there may be a kernel of truth in there somewhere.

Here's the fake letter:

TriplePoint PR has responded on their blog, noting that they not only don't represent Microsoft, they don't employ anyone named Terry Graves. This was either a very sloppy hoax, or one that was designed to be revealed quickly.

For my part, I've never seen a letter from a PR company demanding a specific review score. It's possible that this happens, but I sincerely doubt it. It's too scandalous and too insulting to be real. Mostly these letters are cordial, note contact information and embargo dates, and specify what you shouldn't mention early. For instance, you may have an embargo date of the day prior to the game's release, but you can write freely abut the first Act prior to that. Stuff like that.

"That this obvious forgery has managed to gain as much traction as it has points out the volatility of game journalism's reputation in the regards of gamers," Ian writes, "and why we need to start doing more to win back their trust, assuming we ever had it in the first place."

After all, it's not just gaming journalists at fault here - it's also the industry and the fans.

I mentioned the reaction to Paul's Halo 4 review - it's quite common to see backlash from fans for even a pretty good review that isn't perfect while on the other hand a good review gets smacked with the corruption label just as easily. This is a precarious position to find oneself in, and I think it can lead a lot of video game writers to just shrug off the problems. It's easy to get jaded.

This all ties back to perception and the fact that perception of a corrupt games media is enough to make this sort of hoax letter matter at all, whether or not actual corruption exists or is particularly widespread.

It reminds me a bit of writing in other areas of tech as well. If I wrote a post that said something nice about Apple I'd be accused immediately of being in Apple's pocket; if I wrote a post critical of Apple I would be accused of being in Microsoft's pocket - and so on and so forth.

The fact remains, I am in nobody's pocket, but if you say something nice or something critical about just about any company or game or whatever, you're sure to meet with that accusation.

Which is dumb. It buries the actual problems with gaming or tech journalism deep beneath a mountain of vitriol and paranoia.

Then again, how do you change the fans? More importantly, how do you change the fanboys?

The fact remains that the industry is out to make money, and fans are comprised of all types, ages, tastes - in the triumvirate of fans, publishers, and journalists, it's only the latter that seems to not quite know what its role ought to be.